The Ecolab Foundation is giving $5 million to the University of Minnesota to support research and education on environmental sustainability.

Ecolab CEO Doug Baker said that as the global population and wealth grow, the world must figure out how to minimize the environmental impact of the increasing demand for water and energy.

“We want to be part of that solution,” he said during an announcement at the U’s Institute on the Environment on the St. Paul campus.

Baker said the St. Paul-based company “can think of no better partner” than the U to collaborate on “big-scale solutions” for the world’s problems.

The gift is the Ecolab Foundation’s largest ever to the university.

The donation will establish a $2 million endowed chair at the Institute on the Environment.

Jessica Hellmann, institute director and the first Ecolab Chair for Environmental Leadership, said partnerships between the U and corporations like Ecolab are “really needed to move the needle.”

Another $1.1 million will go toward scholarships for undergraduates majoring in science, engineering and related environmental and sustainability-focused fields. Two cohorts of 24 students each can secure $7,500 annual scholarships for their sophomore, junior and senior years.

An additional 32 undergrads at the Carlson School of Management can get the same award.

There’s also money for international internships for up to 60 students over five years.

Ecolab also will underwrite a conference series on major environmental challenges.

Josh has written about St. Paul public schools and higher education for the Pioneer Press since 2014, 11 years after the paper first published his byline as a University of Minnesota intern. He did a two-year stint on city government and crime in Austin, Minn., and spent seven years in Sioux Falls, S.D. covering crime and education, as well as editing. Josh was good at baseball once. Now he plays tennis against old men.

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